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In the Preface (p. xii), the author describes himself as primarily a self-psychologist who also utilizes other models in exploring the subject of this book, which is analysis as a form of creativity. The book is part of the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series, edited by Joseph Lichtenberg. As a self-psychologist, who often quotes Kohut, Hagman belongs to the relational model in psychoanalysis, as opposed by Greenberg and Mitchell (1983) to the Freudian drive model.
In the first chapter Hagman examines psychoanalytic approaches to art, starting from Freud's early papers, then turning to ego psychology, object relations theory and various contributions from self psychology. He then uses the definition of art given by the philosopher Susanne Langer, as the objective expression of a subjective process, charged with feeling (p. 10). The author adds that the subjective and objective elements interact and change each other. Whereas, traditionally, psychoanalysis has looked at the hidden content of a work of art, the real problem, as Langer says, is perfection of form (p. 16).
At the beginning of Chapter 2 the author states that “psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are forms of art” (p. 19). Analysis aims at alleviating suffering and allowing the analysand to engage in creative living, but analysis itself is creative. “The once private experience of the patient becomes externalized within the shared intersubjective field,” leading to “a third self-organization, the transference-countertransference relationship” (p. 23), where the patient's subjectivity is emphasized, as compared to that of the analyst (p. 24).
Chapter 3 addresses the brain hemisphere asymmetry. The right hemisphere, which is dominant at birth, and is the relational/emotional brain, is eventually integrated with the left hemisphere, which is the rational/verbal brain. According to Allan Schore, right-hemisphere psychotherapy can undo the damage of a traumatic early childhood (p. 33) and lead to creat